IMDb > Cry of the Banshee (1970)

Cry of the Banshee (1970) More at IMDbPro »

Overview

User Rating:
5.1/10   516 votes
MOVIEmeter: ?
Down 9% in popularity this week. See why on IMDbPro.
Director:
Gordon Hessler
Writers:
Tim Kelly (story)
Christopher Wicking (screenplay)
Contact:
View company contact information for Cry of the Banshee on IMDbPro.
Release Date:
22 July 1970 (USA) more
Genre:
Horror more
Plot:
In Elizabethan England, a wicked lord massacres nearly all the members of a coven of witches, earning the enmity of their leader... more | add synopsis
Plot Keywords:
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User Comments:
Not one of Vincent's best. more (27 total)

Cast

  (Cast overview, first billed only)

Vincent Price ... Lord Edward Whitman
Hilary Heath ... Maureen Whitman (as Hilary Dwyer)
Carl Rigg ... Harry Whitman
Patrick Mower ... Roderick
Essy Persson ... Lady Patricia Whitman
Marshall Jones ... Father Tom
Elisabeth Bergner ... Oona
Stephan Chase ... Sean Whitman
Sally Geeson ... Sarah
Hugh Griffith ... Mickey
Robert Hutton ... Party guest
Andrew McCulloch ... Bully boy
Pamela Fairbrother ... Margaret Donald (witch)

Quinn O'Hara ... Magge (witch)
Jan Rossini ... Bess
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Additional Details

MPAA:
Rated R for violence and nudity.
Parents Guide:
Add content advisory for parents
Runtime:
USA:91 min
Country:
UK
Language:
English
Color:
Color
Aspect Ratio:
1.85 : 1 more
Sound Mix:
Mono (RCA Sound System)
Certification:
Iceland:16 | Argentina:16 | Australia:R | UK:15 | USA:GP (original rating) | USA:R | West Germany:16
Filming Locations:
Middlesex, England, UK
Company:
American International Pictures (AIP) more

Fun Stuff

Trivia:
According to Gordon Hessler in his interview on the DVD version of this movie, the whole film was shot "at the mansion of Gilbert and Sullivan" - that is, of Arthur Sullivan and William S. Gilbert. As they did not live together, he is probably referring to the country residence of W.S. Gilbert. more
Quotes:
Harry Whitman: Look, Father, an open tomb. Let's see what's inside.
Father Tom: What, and whom.
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Movie Connections:
Referenced in Planet Terror (2007) more

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User Comments

   (Comment on this title)
4 out of 6 people found the following comment useful.
Not one of Vincent's best., 6 April 2005
4/10
Author: Noel (Werewolf-Moviesdotcom) from Bromsgrove, England

You always know what to expect from this genre of low-budget supernatural-historical movies ... peasants with one brain between the lot of them, fine wenches being treated very, very badly, and plenty of over-acting from men wearing tights and funny hats.

Cry of the Banshee has all of these elements, and is fairly representative of the genre. It isn't on the same level as cult movies like "Witchfinder General" (also starring Vincent Price), but it does have it's moments. Here Vincent Price plays a wicked lord with a very strange family. He takes great pleasure in finding, mistreating and executing young witches, until he messes with the wrong coven and his entire family is cursed. They soon begin to get gruesomely killed off one by one by a seemingly unstoppable monster. That'll teach 'em.

Vincent Price gives a fairly memorable performance here as the evil, sadistic lord of the town. He does the best he can with the script, anyway, which is all a great actor can ever do. Nobody else on the cast is particularly noteworthy, but on the whole it's a fairly competent movie as far as the acting is concerned. On the subject of the script, it does seem to be thing that everyone involved struggled with. The movie had already been sold to the distributors, which meant that the director, re-writers and so on couldn't change it as much as they would probably have liked to, so they didn't necessary end up making the movie they wanted to make.

This accounts for the way that some aspects of the film are so much better than others. In some scenes the actors themselves seem pretty bored with it, whereas in others the relish in the opportunity to show their full talent. The scenes involving the witches coven are pretty interesting, and some of the climatic moments are particularly well-shot. Also, the opening credits sequence is instantly recognisable as the work of Monty Python's artist Terry Gilliam, which is pretty neat. However, there aren't enough great moments to elevate it above most other movies of it's kind.

If you're a fan of Vincent Price, or of those trashy period movies of the sixties and seventies, you might want to give this one a look. Otherwise, it probably won't appeal to you that much.

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